The Angry Squirrels Intervention Gang, a small group of environmental activists claims the fire of a construction machine on the night of October 27 to 28, 2024 in Villeurbanne, on a tramway extension site. The machine would belong to the company NGE, which is also involved in several large-scale projects in France.
The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection
Every day, our editorial team reserves the best regional news for you. A selection just for you, to stay in touch with your regions.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter “The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection”. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
No one knows what an angry squirrel might look like… But the Angry Squirrel Intervention Gang, whose acronym (IPCC) obviously refers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, seems convinced that the angry rodent is not a fan of non-violent protest.
Why Squirrels? Because that is how the activists installed in the trees of the ZAD, the area to be defended, of the A69 motorway construction site between Castres and Toulouse, in the southwest of France, were baptized. A highly contested highway, in particular by radical environmentalists, who had installed a ZAD on the site, completely dismantled on October 7.
Police evacuate the last “Squirrels” from the A69 construction site • © MATTHIEU RONDEL / AFP
Squirrels that have apparently made babies. In recent months, in several parts of France, local groups of “green” activists have appeared. The IPCC Lyon thus claimed responsibility on Tuesday October 29 for the fire of a construction machine, during the night of 28 to 29, rue Poizat in Villeurbanne on the construction site of the extension of the T6 tram line.
In a press release, the Angry Squirrel Intervention Gang describes the destruction of the machine as “of disarmament action and targets the company NGE, a multinational construction company, for its realization of multiple projects“that the small group judges”ecocidal and useless“.
The NGE company is involved in very large projects in France: the Lyon-Turin rail link (Italy), the future high-speed line linking Bordeaux to Toulouse and Dax and the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway.
NGE is also working in Villeurbanne on the T6 tramway extension project on behalf of Sytral, the mobility organization for the Lyon regions. For the moment, neither the NGE company nor the Métropole de Lyon have reacted to this act of vandalism. A complaint has been filed and an investigation is underway.
